m II wrote:
D. Peter Maus wrote:

The Japs put millions of people on Motorcycles who might otherwise not
have had the inclination.

And they did it with tooling, parts, plans and engineers donated by
Harley Davidson.

The following and thousands more web sites need to be informed of this
fact. They all give credit to German and English influences on the
design of Japanese vehicles. A few even have the nerve to claim that
Harley's two stroke experiences were based on a DKW design, as was the
BSA Bantam.

http://www.whybike.com/motorcycle97.htm
http://www.khulsey.com/motorcycles/v..._kawasaki.html
http://tinyurl.com/yboxdtr
http://www.autohistory.org/feature_7.html

http://tinyurl.com/ycuafu7
(pdf file)

http://www.ianchadwick.com/motorcycl...0/history.html
http://www.motorcycle.co.uk/Articles...of-Suzuki.aspx
http://www.motorcycle.co.uk/Articles...of-Yamaha.aspx
http://www.realclassic.co.uk/opinion...n08102400.html
http://www.marusholilac.com/ml2.htm
http://www.motorcycle.com/manufactur...otorcycle.html


As far as I can tell, any country that can make huge ocean going tankers
or battleships powered by monster diesels is more than capable of
producing mopeds and motorcycles.

A great benefit produced by this competition is that Harley and others
have had to vastly improve their product line. There is no comparison
between the 1975 and 2005 Sportsters I own. Everything from the gaskets
to the fasteners has been improved.

Rumour has it that a few ex Norton engineers were hired by Harley,
resulting in the rubber mounting across the whole range. It's wonderful.

mike

Well, everybody has an opinion...and one is as good as the next.

Too bad those Norton engineers couldn't fix the ROOT CAUSE of the
vibration rather than using the band-aid of rubber mountings. (And you
could always tell where a Norton had been -- just follow the trail of
parts that vibrated off). Other than that, Nortons were very nice bikes.

Finally, just admit that the Japanese know how to make a great bike. My
early 70s Honda CB-750 four cylinder was as smooth as an electric motor
compared to my mid-70s BMW 750, much less to a Harley of the same era
that would shake your teeth out.

Your mileage may vary.